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September 14, 2017

Go Live: A New E-Home & Big Plans for kvh. Creative

Today is the day – kvh. creative is LIVE! After about a month or so of dreaming, brainstorming, strategizing, future planning, customizing, designing, writing, and finally…LAUNCHING.

As many of you already know, kvh. creative has been such a work in progress, a labor of love, and the ultimate DIY project for about the last year or so. I’ve loved every minute of it – even the mind-boggling moments that ultimately lead to a breakthrough.

kvh. creative LLC came into existence in October of 2016 and God-willing, has had a pretty solid first 11 months. I’d been running it out of my original blog/website – kaitlynhiltz.com (which also just got a face lift!) and the spare bedroom-turned-office of our home.

I knew that to continue heading in the direction I wanted, things needed a little bit of a shake up. When I decided to do a rebrand slash separation of my personal + business websites, I had 3 primary goals.

The Rebrand Goals

01. – Bring Clarity and Cohesion to Each

It was like one day I looked at my old site and thought to myself, “Wow, there’s a lot of stuff going on here. How does anyone ever quickly grasp what it is I do & offer?” Ahemm, that’s a major problem in digital media/marketing. My solution to clarity & cohesion was creating a second website, solely for kvh. creative that remains focused on helping other creatives achieve their brand & business goals through communications.

02. – Create with Simplicity In Mind

Similar to goal #1, I wanted each website to have a sort of calming, timeless feel, with lots of white space to represent the ‘margin’ I hope to create within my own, off-the-devices life. It’s a lot of work to rebrand, so I didn’t want to find myself in the same position a year from now. I scoured for themes, designs, and inspiration that would help me achieve this lasting principle.

03. – Be Intentional and Keep Your Audience in Mind

Despite the concepts I know in theory about marketing and communications, I often found myself writing about whatever I wanted to, whenever I wanted to. That’s great if your goal is simply to blog and express yourself. Not so great if your goal is to grow a business with a targeted audience and specific list of products/services. Just like I’d recommend to any client, I’m now committed to keeping every touch-point and piece of my ‘brand’ intentional and value-driven for my readers and future clients. This included the revision of new branding, resources, new blog categories, and a new vision for future kvh. digital products.

Overall Style & Theme

In terms of overall style & theme, I went for a mix of: natural, glam, adventurous, tropical, minimalist and refined.

Although I personally did the bulk of the work, I couldn’t have done it without the amazing teams over at ShowIt (the new website platform I just switched to!) and Jen & Jeff of Tonic Site Shop. Just wow. Big, big love & gratitude.

Additionally, I enlisted the help of the talented, China Frost of Olive Paper Co., (whose hand-lettering I’ve been eyeing for MONTHS) to create the new kvh. logo.

My hubby, fam & close friends are always my best supporters and there to chime in with advice on domains, logo designs, color palettes, and whatever questions I throw at them. THANK YOU.

Put it all together, and here’s your all new kvh. creative HQ!

Why the HQ?

Okay, you want the honest answer? My original domain was taken – the worst thing ever to happen when you’re rebranding, SO in true fashion, I had to get creative.

I didn’t love the word ‘studio’ – since that’s mostly for artists and photographers. I’m not exactly an agency. Legally I can’t add ‘Co.’ as an LLC. I didn’t want to limit myself or get long-winded with other words. And well, this little e-home IS my HQ and it’s only growing! So I went for it – welcome to the HQ, friend! Some things just have a way of working out even when, at first, they seem like road blocks.

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That’s about it for now! Go ahead and click around, give my updated copy a read, or play around on the Services & Work With Me pages. There are lots of layers to click through using the ‘+‘ and ‘–‘ signs for more images and information. 🙂

I am booking a limited number of additional clients for Fall + Winter 2017 so if you’re in need of some brand assistance – be sure to get in touch!

P.S. – If you are interested a bit more about me on the personal/blogging side of things – visit kaitlynhiltz.com where I write about faith, wellness, home + travel, style & personal growth.

P.P.S – Get sure to get on the list to become an Insider! Sign-ups are throughout the site.

CHEERS!

x, Kaitlyn

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[…] Separating my personal and professional sites was a crucial decision for me and largely, that decision was based on the struggle I was having with my copy. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how to explain how many things I was doing, interested in, and passionate out. The only answer was to do less (on each site), and therefore, make each of them much stronger. […]

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